The SEC yesterday voted to require the national securities exchanges and the FINRA to establish a market-wide consolidated audit trail that will significantly enhance regulators' ability to monitor and analyze trading activity. The new rule adopted by the SEC requires the exchanges and FINRA to jointly submit a comprehensive plan detailing how they would develop, implement, and maintain a consolidated audit trail that must collect and accurately identify every order, cancellation, modification, and trade execution for all exchange-listed equities and equity options across all U.S. markets

View release in full here (links externally to SEC website).

View release in full here (links externally to SEC website).

The CFTC published in the Federal Register on April 28, 2011 a notice of proposed rulemaking that would establish initial and variation margin requirements for uncleared swaps. The comment period closed on July 11, 2011. The CFTC is extending the comment period for its proposed margin rules for uncleared swaps for swap dealers and major swap participants in order to give interested parties the opportunity to comment on the consultative paper and the CFTC's proposed rules concurrently. Comments Due: September 14, 2012. View rule release in full here (links externally to GPO website).

This letter outlines the Federal Reserve's new process for an applicant to request feedback on a potential acquisition or other proposal prior to the submission of a formal application or notice. The Board believes that this new process will be particularly helpful for community banking organizations that typically do not file applications on a frequent basis or for pre-filers with novel proposals. These applicants will now have the opportunity to work with Federal Reserve staff to receive critical feedback on potential issues related to acquisitions or other proposals. This new optional